"Four deputies dead in a matter of days, what is going on?"

Liz stood in the office of Mayor Lockwood. It was cramped with all of them inside of it. Pastor Young stood against the wall and Liz was standing close to the door. Carol Lockwood was seated in the one chair in front of the desk.

Liz cut her eyes to Carol Lockwood but the woman was no help.

"It's a vampire," Liz said with no small amount of gravitas.

Mayor Lockwood rolled his eyes, "Of course it's a vampire. We want to know what you are doing to deal with it?"

"We are going to have to supply the deputies with vervain," she said. Where was Damon Salvatore? He was the one who supplied the town with its vervain. Where the hell was he? Liz pinched the bridge of her nose. "We know the vampire makes a habit to drain their victims dry but so far we don't know why they are only attacking deputies."

Carol scoffed from where she was sitting, "Probably because they are so out of shape and can barely run."

Liz shot a look to Carol that usually make even the hardest cops wither. Carol shrunk under her gaze and turned her head murmuring something under her breath. Liz turned her gaze away from the mayor's wife and turned her eyes to Mayor Lockwood.

"There isn't much that I can do when without vervain—"

"Did someone mention vervain?" Like a ghost, Damon was at the door, his hand braced against the wood of the doorframe and that annoying smirk on his face. Liz brightened at his appearance.

"Yes, we were just discussing the new—"

"Bah! He knows why we're here. There's no need to catch him up. We need vervain and we need it now," Mayor Lockwood said with a wave of his hand. "The deputies are being picked off two by two and we need vervain to ward them off."

"Sounds like you need a vampire hunter and not vervain," Damon said as he slid into the room, closing the door behind him.

Liz's thoughts were immediately cast to Bill. He knew how to resist the vampires compulsion and knew how to hunt them down. He would be the best bet. But it would take him to long to arrive here and who knows how many deputies she would have lost by the time he arrived. Liz shook her head.

And then she remembered the Mikaelsons. They knew about vampires and they were a new family. They were already here.

"We don't need a vampire hunter. The Gilberts are all dead or scattered. And Bill is who knows where. No we just need a little vervain to deter the vampire and we'll end this meeting here," Mayor Lockwood said with a clap of his hands.

"This meeting is certainly not over!" Liz said. She stood up straight and squared her shoulders. "My deputies are being picked up and a little vervain isn't going to be enough to save them."

"Well what would you have me do?"

Liz looked around the room. They were all looking at her expecting her to have an answer. She nodded. "The Mikaelsons."

Carol raised an eyebrow at the name. "The new family that moved into that manor in the woods. They know about vampires and they even reached out to me to try and join the council."

"How did they find out about the council?" Pastor Young asked.

"I have no idea. Maybe they were a part of one from wherever they come from. But they know about vampires and they can deal with the vampires for us. All we have to do is let them join."

"This is a council of the Founding Families not just anybody," Carol sniffed.

"Well they have ties here that go back centuries all the way to the viking age if I'm remembering what he told me correctly," Liz said. "Look we need a vampire hunted and they may have the means and ways to do it. I think that they would be a great addition to the council."

"We have been needing vampire hunters since the Gilberts and Bill are gone. This town has been lacking in protection," Pastor Young murmured from his place against the wall.

"You all can't be seriously considering this," Damon said with a frown. "The Mikaelsons are untested and we don't even know them. And when they moved into town that's when these attacks started."

"You think they could be the vampires?" Mayor Lockwood asked.

"I know they are the vampires that started this."

All eyes turned to Carol. She had stayed quiet while the rest of them deliberated. And the vote was clearly split down the middle. Carol sighed and rubbed her hands against her dress. "I say let the Mikaelson's prove themselves. They kill the vampire who has been attacking the deputies and then they get entrance into the council."

Liz smiled and then nodded her head. This was good. The vampire would get dealt with and she could tell Klaus of the conditions soon. Damon had a black look on his face with the news.

"We are still going to need vervain Damon," she said in an attempt to make the look lift from his face. Damon nodded his head.

"Well with that, I say that this meeting is adjourned." Mayor Lockwood clapped his hands.

Liz smiled and was the first person out of the door. She grabbed her keys out of her pocket and in the other hand pulled out her phone. Before she could even contact the Mikaelsons, Damon grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

"I wouldn't trust the Mikaelsons," Damon said. Liz pulled herself from his hold and looked him up and down. "You don't know what they are capable of."

"And I suppose that you do?" Liz asked with a blasé look. Damon tried so hard to present himself as an aloof and uncaring person, but Liz could see through that. She saw a bleeding heart, begging to any scraps of attention and affection. "Listen once, they kill this vampire for us, they will be part of the council so you better fix your attitude."

"I'm serious Liz," Damon said with a frown.

"And so am I. Listen Damon, I appreciate you looking out for me, but I know who I am dealing with." She walked away from Damon then never once looking back.

In her car, she dialed the number that Klaus had left her after their first meeting. "Hello?"

Music played in the background. "Liz, wonderful to hear from you again."

"Listen, I have some great news for you."

"Up and at them!"

The world careened as Stefan was thrown from his bed. He slammed into the floor with a hard thud and he groaned from the ground. He was able to crack one eye open and saw the curly mane of Katherine.

She was standing on the other side of the bed, the mattress fully flipped over. He sighed and braced an arm against the floor.

"Did you really have to flip the bed?" Stefan groaned as he rose from the floor. Katherine giggled and jump over the bed, landing on the side of the bed that he was on.

"No, but I could tell that you were going to be resistant to me waking you up," Katherine said as she took a look at him in his pajamas. Katherine was dressed like she just stepped off the set of a photoshoot. Her hair was perfectly coiled and there was no small amount of mischief in her eyes.

"I would have woken up if you just knocked on the door. I maybe in college but I am a hundred years old," Stefan said with no small amount of venom. But Katherine waved off the sting in his voice and sat down on the flipped bed. She ran her fingers through her hair, and Stefan remembered the state that Damon was in when he found out that she had never loved him.

He remembered the listless look in his brother's eyes and the way he had looked so lost and small. Something burned in his chest as he stared at Katherine and her never ending smirk. She looked down at Stefan and clapped her hands.

"Meet in downstairs in ten. If you don't show I will come to find you," Katherine said, tossing him a saucy wink as she walked to the door. Stefan ran a hand through his hair and made his way to his bathroom.

He went through his morning routine with relative quickness and when he stepped outside of his room, he met Damon in the hallway. Stefan sighed and rubbed his neck.

"Did she toss you off your bed?" Stefan asked ins ay of a greeting. Damon shot him a dark look as they made their way down the stairs and into the den proper.

"She poured a bucket of ice cold water on me," Damon said. Katherine lounged on one of the chairs. Her feet propped up on the table in front of her and a tumbler of some dark amber liquid in her hands. Her lips quirked up as she took in the both of them.

"God, you guys take longer than me to get ready," Katherine said, downing the rest of the drink. She shook her head as she rose and she smiled at the both of them. "But luckily you guys came right when I was about to give you another wake up call."

"Yeah, yeah," Damon said, "what's so important that you broke into our home and woke us up when you could have just sent us a text or something."

Stefan measured his brother with his eyes. Damon's stance was relaxed and he looked at Katherine with clear eyes, none of the glassy eyed looks that Stefan saw when he dragged his brother to the bathroom. Stefan turned his eyes back to Katherine.

"Well the reason why I came knocking is because I know what these new vampires want," Katherine said with no small amount of gravitas. The air crackled with the words. She knew what they wanted. What they wanted, with vampires that was always a loaded question. They could have wanted any number of things, but—

"Well out with it," Damon said. Katherine sent him a droll look and walked into the kitchen. Stefan and Damon followed her and there sitting on the kitchen table was a book. It was less a book and more a tomb. It's pages were old and yellowed and the cover was nothing more than cracked leather. Katherine went to the book and pet it's cover like it was an old friend.

Damon and Stefan walked in wary of what the book could have held, but something pulled them closer the thought of figuring out what these newer, older vampires wanted. Katherine cracked open the book and turned to a page that had page to page drawings. The drawings were rudimentary, simple in their stylings, but they spoke to Stefan. They were nothing like the Renaissance paintings that decorated the house, but they were captivating in their own way.

A man stood in the center of the book, his arms out stretched as three circles burned, monsters contained within the three circles. At the top of the page the sun and the moon seemed to glow on the page. Katherine tapped one of her long manicured fingers on the page.

"This, boys, is the Sun and Moon curse. So ancient it far surpasses me in age," Katherine said. Stefan edged closer. He looked at the three monsters that were locked in rings of fire. One of the monsters was covered in blood, his eyes painted a dark red and his face stained with the veins that came with vampirism.

"Well what does this all mean?" Stefan said, tracing his finger over the face of the vampire in the painting.

"I have been able to piece together most of it, but the gist of it is… if these vampires complete this ritual then we would be able to walk in the sun light without getting burned," Katherine breathed.

Walking in the sunlight, without burning? The very thought was crazy to Stefan, but then he walked in the sunlight already with his daylight ring. It seemed pointless that these vampires with their daylight rings and their superior powers would want to walk in the sunlight without them.

But then again, so many vampires were relegated to walking during the night because no witch would make them daylight rings.

"That's all they want? To walk in the daylight? But they have rings," Stefan asked. Damon nodded his head.

"It's stupid. Why would they need to complete this ritual if they have rings. It doesn't make any sense. What would they gain from doing this?" Damon said with a tossed glance to the book.

Katherine shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Old vampires are complicated. They have their own plans and their own reasons for doing things."

"You can say that again," Stefan muttered under his breath.

"But what's important is that they want to carry out this ritual."

"I'm failing to see why this is the reason that you dragged us out of bed," Damon yawned.

Katherine shoot Damon a look but turned the page. There sitting in the center of the page was a portrait of Elena. The picture was weathered with age and the edges of the pages were frayed, but that was a picture of Elena. The spitting image of Katherine who stood before them.

"Because in order for this ritual to work they need Elena," Katherine drawled.

Stefan stared at the photo for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts together so he could speak. But his thoughts had flatlined. Elena was needed so that he and so many other vampires could walk in the sun.

"Well we can't let them have Elena," Stefan heard himself say. Damon shrugged his shoulders.

"Well why not? We can walk in the sun and all they need is one girl. Seems like a good trade off for me."

Stefan shot Damon a black look. "We are not giving them Elena."

Katherine snapped the book shut and brought it close to her chest. "You know Shiela isn't here, but I think that she would vote no on giving them Elena too."

"We stop them from going through with this ritual," Stefan said. He spoke with a hard bite to his voice.

"I have too many enemies that would kill me if they could walk during the day, so my vote is going to have to be no," Katherine said. Stefan nodded his head and Damon sighed.

"Fine and how do you want to stop them?"

"With the sleep spell that I suggested before," Katherine said. Stefan nodded his head.

No one was going to touch Elena.

Elijah sat straight back at the cafe in Richmond. The waitress came over and asked if he wanted anything, but he was quick to dismiss her. His cup of expresso was sitting steaming right in front of him and Elijah wanted nothing more than to scarf it down but he forced himself to take small sips of the drink.

What he was doing was something that Klaus would never forgive. He did not know what had come over him, but seeing Elena with her painfully human life and everything that she was—it was wrong to simply roll over her life, snuff it out as though it was nothing.

She deserved to live and enjoy her life just as much as the next person. She deserved to graduate college and get married and have herself a litter of children. The thought soothed something in Elijah. That is what she deserved.

And what about you? A small part of him wondered. What did he deserve? Immediately his thoughts turned to Klaus. HIs younger brother was getting out of hand. He was gaining more power and more control over everything. It was like Elijah could feel the noose tightening around his neck with each passing day. His brother was something that needed to be dealt with, but as long as he had those daggers—

Hands covered his eyes and a sultry voice whispered in his ear, "Guess who?"

"Why guess when I'm the one who summoned you here?" Elijah quipped. The hands pulled away from his eyes and Katherine pouted as she dropped into the seat across from him. She crossed her arms across her chest and sulked like a child.

"You're no fun Elijah. You never want to play games with me," she sighed as she flagged down the waitress.

"There's no time to play games when Klaus or one of his watchers can find us," Elijah said, leaning back in his seat. Katherine chattered her order to the waitress and with a flick of her wrist, the waitress was gone with her order. "You know why I have called you here."

"Yes, yes. An update about what the Salvatores and Shiela are doing. I know the drill Elijah. The Salvatore brothers are as clueless as they were the day that I first reported about them. I'm surprised you haven't dispatched anyone to kill them yet."

Elijah shrugged his shoulders. "They have their part to play in all of this. I need them so that everything can go to plan."

Katherine planted her elbows on the table and leaned in closer to Elijah, her chestnut brown eyes narrowing in on Elijah as she looked at him. "And if we pull this off then I get pardoned right? No more running and hiding?"

Elijah cast his gaze to the denizens walking outside of the window. "You have my word that you will be pardoned. We just need the Salvatores to take the fall for everything and then you will be in the clear."

"I fed them the sun and moon curse like that you told me too." Katherine pulled the tome out of her bag and slammed it against the table. The book made the whole table shake and Elijah watched the ripples in his expresso with a frown. He took the book. "Having something that old really helped me sell the tale to them. Good job on thinking ahead 'Lijah."

Elijah looked at her. She was everything that Elena was not. She was saucy, and catty, and the exact opposite of what he should want. It would have been easier if he fell in love with Elena like his brother suspected, but Elijah leaned forward against the table, he reached over and fingered a curl of Katherine's long tresses.

"Once this is all over we won't have to hide anymore," Elijah said. The thought just hit him. He wouldn't have to hide his relationship with Katherine. He could imagine her already sitting and sharing moments with Caroline, her friend, and getting into small tiffs with his sister. It was everything that he had ever dreamed about and soon it was all coming together.

Katherine smiled and shushed him. "Don't jinx it, silly. Though I quite like sneaking around with you." She scooted her chair closer to his own and she crept her fingers up the arms of her suit, her fingers tracing the line where his pulse thumped. "I remember Prague. And Spain. Aspen."

Elijah leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He remembered Katherine in Aspen. The white of her bikini against the olive tone of her skin. The way that she held on to him while he carried her to the bedroom. The marks that she had left on him afterwards. It was something of a dream to Elijah now.

Katherine's fingers skittered up his shoulder and into his hair. She leaned closer then and he could feel her hot breath against the shell of his ear. "I remember how you held me down in the sand. How you stripped me of my bikini and how you treated me the moment it was off. I always did enjoy sneaking around with you."

Elijah's eyes jumped open and he turned his gaze to Katherine. She met his look with a heated stare of her own and Elijah felt heat pool in his stomach. Yes, he very much did like sneaking around with Katherine. It was always fun, knowing that they could get caught at any moment.

But soon that would all be over and the two of them could be out in the open. Without fear or reproach.

"There is a time for everything Katerina," he said. Katherine leaned back and huffed.

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that."

"Why it's your name."

"My name is Katherine," she said. The waitress walked over and placed in front of Katherine her drink. She was gone in a matter of moments. Katherine held the warm drink in between her two hands and she gazed up at Elijah through her long lashes. "Katherine Pierce is the name now."

"I prefer Katerina," she said with sip of her coffee. Elijah sent her a half hearted smile that did not reach his eyes.

"You are sure that they are going to use the sleep spell and nothing else?" Elijah asked returning to business. Katherine rolled her eyes, but Elijah's gaze never wavered. She nodded.

"They are so busy with everything that I have them doing that they have no time to research anything else, I think."

"You think or you know?"

"I know," Katherine said with conviction. "Elijah you have to trust me. I know what we need to do. You have to trust me when I say that I know."

Elijah gazed into her eyes and could see that she was telling the truth. Could see that she was begging for him to loosen the leash. He nodded.

"Of course."

Katherine sent him a dazzling smile. "I assure you that everything is going to plan. No more sneaking around." Katherine slid her hand towards him. Elijah took it.

"No more sneaking around."

Author's Note: Hey everyone! I wanted to make an announcement. So a lot of you know I am publishing my own book and I am currently in the last edits for my book because of that I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo so I will be dedicating the month of April to writing book two in the series. It is because of this that I have decided to pause this story for the month of April. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging, but yeah I'm working on book two of my novel series.

Tl;dr: No updates for the month of April.